Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner makes a pair of appearances on this Sunday’s television talk shows – on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and on CBS’s “Face the Nation” – to press the Obama administration’s case for raising the nation’s debt limit as negotiations on a long-term spending plan enter a critical phase.

On NBC, he’ll be followed by Republican presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty, the former governor of Minnesota, where much of the state government is now shut down in a budget standoff.

And on CBS, the other guests will be Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, and Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democratic member of the Budget Committee.

On ABC, “This Week” has White House chief of staff Bill Daley and the newly appointed International Monetary Fund managing director, Christine Lagarde, who’s taking over in the wake of the arrest of her predecessor, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, on sexual assault charges in New York.

“Fox News Sunday” also talks fiscal matters with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) ahead of another scheduled meeting of top congressional leaders with President Barack Obama at the White House.

On CNN, House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee, square off on “State of the Union.” And former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum stops by to discuss his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, as well as James Garvin, the chief scientist at NASA’s Space Flight Center, to discuss the future of space travel.